Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

"It's epistemology, stupid!"

Yesterday, I did a post about my review article of Garnet
Howard Milne’s book Has the Bible Been
Kept Pure? that appears in the latest Puritan
Reformed Journal. I also recorded an audio version of the review. As I did
the audio version, I noticed that the editors had made a few changes to the
text. I understand. This happens. I found one change, however, to be puzzling.

Near the end of the article I try to make a point about how focus
on epistemology is key for overturning modern text criticism in the hearts of
conservative, Reformed evangelicals and drew an historical analogy from politics.

In my original review it read as follows (note the lines in
bold):

Still, it
is Milne’s historical and doctrinal arguments that hold pride of place in this
work, and they are formidable. The work’s greatest strength is its stress on
the epistemological weaknesses of the modern text critical method. When Bill
Clinton defeated the incumbent George H. W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential
election, he said his key to victory was that he kept reminding his campaign
staff, “It’s the economy, stupid!” If
the traditional text is once again to prevail among the Reformed and evangelical
then it might well come about because its advocates keep repeating, “It’s epistemology, stupid!”

The anecdotal quip from the Clinton campaign is familiar
to anyone who remembers the 1992 election. According to a Wikipedia entry,
“It’s the economy, stupid” was actually a variation on “The economy, stupid” as
coined by legendary Clinton political strategist James Carville.

Here, however, is how the passage above was
edited to appear in the published article (again note the lines in bold):

Still, it
is Milne’s historical and doctrinal arguments that hold pride of place in this
work, and they are formidable. The work’s greatest strength is its stress on
the epistemological weaknesses of the modern text critical method. When Bill
Clinton defeated the incumbent George H. W. Bush in the 1992 United States presidential
election, he said his key to victory was that he kept reminding his campaign
staff it was all about the economy. If
the traditional text is once again to prevail among the Reformed and evangelical
then it might well come about because its advocates keep affirming that it is all about epistemology.

So, the offending word “stupid” was removed. It
is indeed a coarse word. When my children were young we taught them not to say this
word or to call anyone by that name. More than once, I had a child report with
horror on some interaction overheard in public or on media, “He said the ‘S’
word.” And by that he meant he had heard someone use the word “stupid.” Oh the
glories of giving your children shelter in homeschooling!

Is, however, the word so coarse that it should have
been excised from the article? Would such a phrase offend the sensitive ear of
the Puritan Reformed Journal reader? Does
the paraphrase weaken the impact of the historical reference? Does “It’s
epistemology, stupid!” make a bigger splash than “it is all about epistemology”?

Well, the article stands as it is. Maybe one day
some Reformed digital scholar will write an article attempting to reconstruct
the original text of the review, while another will argue it should stand as received.
Smiles.